A liquid crystal display apparatus has attracted attention for its properties such as being thin, being lightweight, and having low power consumption, and is widely used in: portable devices such as a cellular phone and a watch; office automation (OA) devices such as a personal computer monitor and a laptop personal computer; and home appliances such as a video camera and a liquid crystal television. The use of the liquid crystal display apparatus has spread because disadvantages in that its display properties vary depending on an angle from which a screen is viewed and that the liquid crystal display apparatus cannot operate at high temperatures and very low temperatures have been overcome by technical innovations. However, wide-ranging uses have changed the property required for each use. For example, a conventional liquid crystal display apparatus has only to have viewing angle property of a contrast ratio between white/black displays of about 10 in an oblique direction. This definition derives from a contrast ratio of black ink printed on white paper of newspapers, magazines, and the like. However, the use of the liquid crystal display apparatus for a large stationary television requires a display that can be viewed well from different viewing angles because several persons view a screen at the same time. That is, a contrast ratio between white/black displays must be 20 or more, for example. A person viewing four corners of a screen of a large display without moving is comparable to a person viewing the screen from different viewing angle directions. Thus, it is important that the liquid crystal panel have uniform contrast or display without color unevenness across the entire screen. If such technical requirements are not satisfied in use for a large stationary television, a viewer may feel uncomfortable and tired.
Various retardation films are conventionally used for a liquid crystal display apparatus. For example, there is disclosed a method of improving a contrast ratio in an oblique direction and color shift in an oblique direction (coloring of an image varying depending on an angle seen from) by arranging a retardation film having a relationship of nx≡nz>ny (so-called a negative A plate) on one side or both sides of a liquid crystal cell of in-plane switching (IPS) mode (see Patent Document 1, for example). However, such techniques cannot sufficiently improve a contrast ratio in an oblique direction and color shift in an oblique direction. As a result, display properties of the thus-obtained liquid crystal display apparatus do not satisfy the requirements for a large stationary television.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-10-54982.